My boyfriend and I have been dating for almost 5 years. The first year we were together the only pregnancy prevention we used was condom/mostly pulling out. We were in college and definitely not ready at all for kids. When we were sophomores in college, I got on the pill and stayed on it for 3 years. This past February I got off of it because the hormones took away my sex drive, and I was afraid of fertility effects. So it's now been 3 months since I've been off the pill.

It was a great decision, and I feel really good about it. Were now using pull out as prevention. But I'm about to go to grad school, and I'm terrified that I'm going to accidentally get pregnant. Because I hated the hormones from the pill, I wanted to find prevention that was hormone free. I've heard about the copper IUD (paraguard) and it sounds fantastic but I'm so scared of the possible bad side effects or risks. I've read everything from horrible gushing periods to IUDS that randomly expel. What have you heard about the IUD? Would you reccomend this and why?